Free coffee grounds

I was contacted by a lovely lady today who is marketing manager for Humanitarian Coffee. They run 5 shops in the Brisbane city centre. The company would like to give us the coffee grounds from all five stores. This is something I have been trying to achieve in my own area with no luck. We are talking a couple of hundred kilos of grounds a week. As you know, you can grow mushrooms in them, use them in compost, use them pretty much as mulch - it's a great resource and would save a lot of landfill.

I intend to meet with them next week to talk about the logistics of pick-ups etc. They are in corporate buildings so really only want one person doing pick-ups.

My main issue is to see who is interested in getting access to this free resource. This would be one occasion where I would happily consider a north/south side thing. We could identify a person in the middle of each side of town. Arrange delivery/pick-up and that would decrease the need for us to travel to collect. Two pick-up points, if you will.

Who is interested? For how much potentially (1 bag a week, a 50 litre bin a week etc)? Potential depot sites? Let me know what you think.

Replies to This Discussion

It is definitely a good mulch and compost item, but I don't know how it would work with our spread out numbers, someone would have hold about 100 kilos in their yard for locals to pick it up. Is that what you mean Andrew.

I would be interested in receiving grounds but I would admit to being an intermittent picker upper - for me it would be when time and circumstances would allow me to do it. I could commit to a roster (ie every 2nd or third week) provided someone would be able to collect in my absence. I would be happy to be a drop off point s well -- same as Elaine, it could go in the front driveway and people could help themselves

I would be happy to take 100lts to start with and 50lts month there after. If we supplied the bins that they use (if it like Starbucks, they use the I think it's a 60lt Black Bins with lid, I have same bins from Buns) we could swap over the full bins for clean empty ones, but this would take 2 people to carry out, bins usually have handles. Sorry could not pick up as our car is full of work tools, no room left, even for passengers.

As many members know, I have been using coffee grounds for years. I would be happy to pay petrol money to someone if they can deliver to me in Ellen Grove.

Thanks Valerie. It's looking like Mark at Eatons Hill will be our holding depot. With notice, I can pick up from him and act as a closer in pick-up point. We can organise a drop-off to Susan's when we know people want an order. That's make like pretty easy but I might charge a really tiny fee to cover petrol for us to transport to and from depots.